"I can't believe you convinced Mr. S to let you switch partners." Aaron shook his head. "If I was him, I would've told you to suck it up and deal with it."
I laughed and opened up my binder, ready to take notes. "What can I say? Charm is a quality that God chose to bless me with."
"Well, it's making you look like a dumbass."
"So what? It'd be better for me to lie and act like everything is cool with Juliana?"
"No. You try and work it out with her. That's the correct thing to do, Robbie." He paused for a second. "You know you still gotta work on her with that worldwide competition you foolishly entered."
"Damn! I forgot about that."
"Who's the smart one now?" He clapped me on the back. "Not you. That's for sure."
"Robbie, Aaron. See me after class." Mr. Saltzstien said, looking us dead in the eye over the rim of his glasses.
***
"Yes, Sir?" I asked Mr. Saltzstien after walking up to his desk. Aaron was dead silent beside me. In fact, I didn't even know if he was still breathing.
"What were you two talking about earlier that was more important than learning about Electron Configuration?"
"Nothing. Sorry." I said, twiddling my thumbs.
"You should be because you both earned a detention after school today."
"What! We can't do that. We got football practice..." Aaron finally said something.
"And you can go after detention. It's been decided guys; there isn't anything you can say to change my mind."
I tapped my finger on his desk. "What if I slipped you a twenty?"
"Nope. The only thing I would even make me consider it would be if you could somehow get an autograph for my daughter from her favorite actor. Even then, it is still questionable."
I said a quick prayer that Mr. S's daughter's favorite actor was Sam. If he was, well, there probably wasn't going to be any detention for me! It was times like this that I loved having a famous actor for a brother.
"Who's her favorite actor?" Aaron asked, glaring at me a little bit.
"That new teenage guy all the girls are doting over—Sam Patterson is his name I believe..."
I nodded my head. "What if I could promise you an autograph tomorrow and a phone call some time in the near future?"
"You'd get yourself out of detention."
"Well, I can make that promise."
"Alright. You don't have detention today, but Aaron still does. If I don't have that autograph tomorrow, Robbie, you will have detention for the next week."
"Yes, Sir."
***
On my lunch break, I sent Sam a quick text.
Me: hey. wanna do your favorite older bro a favor?
Sam: What is it now, Robbie?
Me: i need an autograph, and i also need you to call this girl. gotta have autograph by tomorrow.
Sam: Robbie... -_- GRRR.
Sam: How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not your get out of jail free card?
Sam: Plus, I gotta contact my management now to get permission to call whoever the hell this is, and you know how much I like that.... Especially when I'm off work.
God, sometimes Sam was just plain ridiculous and selfish. I hoped he'd do the right thing in the end, which was doing what I asked of him.
*The Next Day in Chemistry*
"I can't wait till Als gets famous. Must be nice having Sam as a crutch to fix your stupidity."
"Indeed it is. You have no idea how hard this autograph was to get from him. He's just so stingy with the damn things."
"Was Coach mad at me for missing practice?"
"Yeah. I told him that we had both got a detention, but I got out of mine. He told me to tell you that he was very disappointed with your conduct, so here I am saying it. Aaron, Coach is disappointed with your conduct."
Aaron cracked a smile and shook his head. "Quick question, Robbie. Next time we get a detention, throw me in on your get-out-free card, please."
"Thought you liked playing by the rules, or I would've gotten ya out last time." I winked and started paying attention to Mr. S. The Lord knew I didn't need another detention.
***
Juliana was being the bitch that she was by not letting me do any of the work. Was she trying to make a statement or something? Whatever. Two could play that game. I pulled out my phone and kicked my feet up on the desk while she worked. Operation Ignore Juliana was in action.
Kylie: Robbie :( You've yet to tell me the plans for tonight! I miss you! :'(
I rolled my eyes. Kylie was even clingier than the first time we dated. There was flood of texts from her, and I had about fifty voicemails--- all from her.
Robbie: Name a time and place.
Kylie: Idk. YOU are supposed to have planned this all out. >.<
Robbie: Sorry. Been a tad busy.
"Can you help me please?" Juliana asked, stretching to reach something.
I didn't reply. I just continued to sit there on my phone waiting for clingy Kylie to text me back.
"Robbie! Please!"
I continued to ignore her. She could get it herself.
"Please help me. Please?"
"Haven't you heard of a stool? They slide across the floor easily, and they allow you to reach things. Pretty cool, huh?" I said and then looked back down at my phone.
"You are such a jerk." Her jaw clenched, and she shook her head.
"And you're a bitch. I thought that we had already established this."
"I thought that you would be a man and still help me with our project even though things aren't working between us personally. That's part of growing up, Robbie. You have to push away your grudges towards someone to get what needs to get finished done."
"You are coaching me on how to behave appropriately when you were the one that stood me up?"
"Robbie! I apologized. My dad is dying... right now... as we speak. I told you that! And then you go and tell me that it's all a story? It's not. I was willing to try and do this project with you, but you won't put away your personal life for even a minute to work with me."
"You're right."
"Well then, do it yourself. I'm leaving."
***
I met Kylie for dinner at Mama McDoodles. It was her favorite restaurant, and it was probably my least favorite. The cooking was less than ideal.
"So how's your day been?" She asked me eagerly.
"It's been a day. Glad it's almost over."
"You know I go back to Oregon tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah." I nodded my head. "You ready to be home?"
"No! That means I won't get to see you everyday. We'll make it work though."
"Yeah. Sure."
***
We ate our dinner, and I paid for the both of us. She was my girlfriend after all, even if she was annoying as hell and clingy.
As I was walking Kylie out to her car, she struck up conversation again. "Will you miss me?"
"Probably." I opened her car door for and gave her a quick hug bye.
***
Juliana was mad at me still. I was mad at her still. Kylie was clingy. And now I had to do the entire science project on my own. I groaned, flicked my lamp off, and turned over to go to sleep. It had just been one of those days.